I read with much interest the article by Mr. West in the April 5 number
of THE SURVEY and I must raise my voice in protest against taking Mr.
West too seriously. I have lived with the miners of West Virginia for
the past four years and have made a pretty thorough study of the entire
situation.
It is perhaps hardly to be expected that a newspaper reporter visiting
the field during the struggle would get an unbiased view of the
situation.
No one who is conversant with the situation would deny that there are
two sides to the fight and that both have made their mistakes. The
question of union or non-union has little to do with it. The worst
living and working conditions are to be found in some of the union
settlements along the Kanawha river; perhaps there are some equally bad
ones in non-union fields. The best working and living conditions of West
Virginia are found in non-union fields. Yet, I do not wish to be
understood as arguing against unions, as I do not believe that the union
question has much bearing on the real conditions.
It is simply the character of the operators and the men themselves that
determines the conditions of any mining settlement. There is much
mis-understanding and mis-information among the men themselves.
Mr. West mentions the company stores as being a source of contention.
Now, it is true that in some of the stores some articles are priced too
high, but, on the other hand, men are often mis-informed as to prices in
other places. To illustrate, in the early days of the strike a miner on
Cabin Creek told me he was paying $1.20 per bushel for potatoes at the
company store that could be bought in Charleston for $.60. The next day
I was in Charleston and meeting a farmer on the street, selling his own
product, I learned that the price was $.30 per peck. My miner friend
therefore had jumped at a conclusion that the facts would not justify,
and yet that same man could, by this mis-information, stir up much
dissatisfaction.
When I lived in Charleston, I used frequently to buy meat at the company
store and take it home, a distance of thirty miles, because I could buy
it from three to five cents per pound cheaper than in Charleston. On the
other hand, I saw in two different stores in another district, bedsteads
marked $7, the exact counterpart of which I have bought myself in
Charleston for $4.50. Such a profit as this certainly is not
justifiable. Taken all in all, the prices on necessities do not vary to
any great extent between the company and the independent stores when one
considers the additional cost of transportation.
Nothing is more dangerous than truth and error mixed. Mr. West says the
operators have a larger number of men than they can make use of at each
operation and that the reason of this is that they may have their houses
filled. The real fact is that nearly every operation must have from 20
to 30 per cent more men than are needed in order to run the mine to the
full capacity, as about that proportion will lay off work each day. I
have tried to find the reason for this and have been told repeatedly by
the miners themselves that since they could earn enough money in four or
five days to support themselves for a week they could see no reason why
they should work every day.
The “guard system” is certainly not an ideal one. Neither are all of the
men serving as guards ideal citizens. They certainly have been guilty of
many of the abuses which might be expected from so much authority with
so little responsibility to the state. But there must be some method of
policing the mining districts. Thus far the state and county have failed
to provide police facilities, and an “absentee” police system would make
crime easy to commit in such a country. Thus far, there has been no
improvement suggested by those who are leading this insurrection.
In regard to the housing, if Mr. West or any one else could build one of
the four room cottages at a labor expense of $40., or even twice that,
he would be in great demand as a contractor for house building.
Moreover, any operator would be glad to get his houses built at a net
expense of twice the figures given by Mr. West. One needs only to visit
the houses vacated by miners to convince himself that the 10 per cent
income on the actual investment will hardly pay for repairs. The average
miner is not at all careful as to where he collects his kindling wood. I
have seen many houses with from one to four doors and perhaps a quarter
of the ceiling missing, having been used for this domestic purpose.
One real difficulty with the miners is a lack of constructive
leadership. When they are taught such anarchistic ideas as that voiced
by Mr. Houston at the investigation of the commission, it is no wonder
that such men, under the leadership of individuals, whose past history
will hardly bear the light of day, band themselves together for
desperate purposes. Mr. Houston stated that the miner should be paid
every cent that the coal brings in the market, except what the railroad
gets for transportation, and there are many mine workers who actually
believe this.
My sympathy is with the miner whose work is dangerous and who should
have every consideration consistent with good order and business
conditions. There is no calling which requires so little investment on
the part of the worker that brings such returns in money. Any miner in
the Cabin Creek or Paint Creek field who is willing to work steadily can
earn anywhere from $3 to $6 per day and many earn more than this clear.
The real difficulty with these men is that they need education and
training as to how to care for their money after it has been earned. It
is true that there are many days when the mines cannot run owing to
breakdowns or lack of sufficient cars in which to load the coal. This
latter reason is especially frequent in some sections.
I have hardly touched the subject but I do hope this matter will be
thoroughly investigated and I personally believe no person is more
anxious for a federal investigation than the operator himself, although
Mr. West says the operators oppose such an investigation.